Steven Rugge: On Biden’s civil rights record

In a recent Democratic debate, Joe Biden was again, according to the Associated Press, the target of Kamala Harris who, “charged that Biden’s past work with segregationists in the Senate could have prevented Barack Obama from becoming the nation’s first black president, and stopped her and fellow presidential candidate Cory Booker, both of whom are black, from becoming senators” and that “Had those segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate, Cory Booker would not be a member of the United States Senate, and Barack Obama would not have been (president).”

But wait a minute — maybe it was Biden’s ability to work with those people and compromise them out of “getting their way” that actually helped pave the way for Obama, Booker, and Harris.

In any event, since Booker and Harris are in fact senators as well as presidential candidates, it is a false and politically cynical argument, a complete fiction.

Biden should be proud of the work he did for civil rights in past decades, and Harris and Booker actually owe him a vote of thanks, rather than criticism, for what he did to help get them to where they are today.

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Steven Rugge

Nevada City

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